Etymology data from Wiktionary via Wiktextract (CC BY-SA 4.0). Chinese character data from the 說文解字, the Taiwan MOE 國語辭典簡編本 (CC BY-ND 3.0 TW) and HSK/TOCFL lists.

Explanations are written by a local model (gemma4) and only published after a verification pass against the cited sources. How it works.

Chinese

把

bǎ

to hold; to grasp; to take

Phono-semantic compound 形聲
HSK 3
TOCFL 3
radical 手
7 strokes

Etymology graph

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Origin

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声, OC *praːʔ): semantic 扌 (“hand”) + phonetic 巴 (OC *praː).

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

meaningChinese手 “hand (Classifier: 隻／只 m c mn; 雙／双 m mn; 對／对 c)”
soundChinese巴 “python (snake)”

Words built on it: 把握

Meanings

character

to hold; to grasp; to take
to control; to dominate
to guard; to have control over
to be close; to be near
to hold a baby while it relieves itself
to feel (for the pulse)

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

把：握也。从手巴聲。

Xu Shen, c. 100 CE — the first analytical dictionary of Chinese characters.

國語辭典 definitions

柄，器具上供握持的部分。例：槍把、刀把、茶壺把兒
花、葉或果實等的梗子。例：花把兒、葉把兒

© Ministry of Education, Taiwan — CC BY-ND 3.0 TW, shown unaltered.

How 把 was written 字形演變

Qin slips
秦系簡牘
Qin
Small seal
說文小篆
Shuowen, c. 100 CE
Regular
楷書
since c. 200 CE

Historical forms collected by the legacy etymfun dataset; most characters have several attested variants.

Sources

Historical glyph forms (zdic.net 字形演变) — Rights unverified
HSK / TOCFL word lists — Facts (levels)
教育部《國語辭典簡編本》 (Taiwan MOE) — CC BY-ND 3.0 TW
說文解字 Shuowen Jiezi (Xu Shen, c. 100 CE) — Public domain
Written form — n/a
Wiktionary (via Wiktextract / kaikki.org) — CC BY-SA 4.0
Wiktionary: 把